Messi acclaimed, Haaland most cited, rare surprises… Details of the Ballon d’Or votes

2023-11-04 11:21:26

This Golden Ball could not escape him and the figures confirm it. On Monday, Lionel Messi won the supreme individual title for the 8th time, delivered and organized by France Football. The now French monthly revealed, this Saturday, the details of the votes for the last edition, a moment always awaited.

As a result, out of 92 journalists voting among the 100 countries best ranked by Fifa, Messi topped the ranking… 65 times, or 70% of voters. Only six journalists did not include it at all in their top 5: the representatives of Cameroon, Cape Verde, Guinea, Jordan, Salvador and Switzerland. The Swiss vote, which ranks Haaland, Vinicius Jr., Bounou, Bernardo Silva in order and gives its only point to Saka, does not include Mbappé either.

Some bold votes, others chauvinists

The Frenchman is not very far from his former teammate in terms of the number of votes cast (84), but he was only named 1st by 5 countries: Bulgaria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire. Ivory, Ecuador and the Czech Republic. He is cited 24 times in 2nd place, and 41 times in 3rd place. Erling Haaland, for his part, is the player who was mentioned the most in the votes (88 times) and only 4 countries left him out: Argentina, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Georgia.

In the end, Messi won a more than comfortable Golden Ball with 462 points, 105 points ahead of Haaland (357 pts) and 192 points ahead of Mbappé (270). One of the closest votes won by the Argentinian.

In 2022, the Ballon d’Or organization had reduced the number of voters to around a hundred among the 100 best-placed countries in the Fifa rankings, in order to “strengthen the level of expertise and limit (rare) fanciful votes”. Which did not prevent some votes from raising eyebrows, or being tinged with at least a form of audacious chauvinism. The Argentine vote which places Messi and three of his Albiceleste teammates (Alvarez and the two Martinez) in its top 5 is an example. The Georgian vote which places Kvaratskhelia in 3rd place or the Cameroonian vote, with André Onana 4th, are others.

Bonmati, almost flawless

Also note, on the side of the Women’s Golden Ball, the unchallenged domination of Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati, ranked 1st by 42 of the 47 voters for the trophy and who was only left out by… a single voter , the representative of Chile. She won this Golden Ball easily with 266 points, far ahead of Sam Kerr (87 pts). Only five countries included the first Frenchwoman, Katidiatou Diani (12 pts) in their top 5 and Wendie Renard’s only point comes… from France.